Boldly Go Solo

How to set out solo, but not travel alone: Trips, tips and ideas for the active traveler.

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  • A yoga retreat in California welcomes all kinds. Single. Married. Bun in the oven.

    Recently, I sent out a request for people to send me their stories about going solo to a spa. A lot of folks who land on my site are searching for solo spa vacations. So I figure I should write about more of them. But since I’ve only been to two (here and here) destination spas, (as opposed to day spas or massages in hotels,) I don’t quite feel like the expert.

    Yoga_by_myyogaonline

    Over the weeks, I will be telling you about some others’ spa experiences. But I had to start with an email exchange that cracked me up. It was from a pregnant woman. Not exactly my regular readership.

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  • Biking in Madrid and how to spot a fellow solo traveler

    How to spot a solo traveler? "You can always tell us apart by overuse of the self timer on our digital cameras or from the outstretched arm." This line by a fellow solo traveler made me laugh. I have to admit to having a self portrait from the outstretched arm technique. I also have to say…not a good look.Policeman_madrid_spainby_ellen_perl

    But it IS proof that you’ve been somewhere. I only resort to it when I’m someplace I can’t ask someone else to take my photo. The one I’m remembering is of me at the ocean during a Vancouver Island trip. I’d climbed down a hill in the back of Point No Point Restaurant (fabulous food) and had the whole place to myself. Out came the camera for that photo for posterity.

    But back to the blogger, a network security consultant who does not give her name on her blog. (perhaps she’s very attuned to privacy, being in her line of work.) We’ll just call her "Nettie."

    After spotting the solo traveler and feeling encouraged by the kinship from afar, Nettie continued, "It struck me that as a solo traveler the last thing I wanted right then was to have a companion; there really is something satisfying about learning to be alone."Street_performer_madrid_spainby_ell

    I wholeheartedly agree. I happen to be past the "learning" part now. I just know I like the freedom of traveling solo. I also like meeting people. But I have to be in the mood and there has to be a reason. I don’t randomly need company.

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  • Go to classes to learn how to whip up Thai food. That’s one way to solve the dining-alone problem

    National Geographic came out with a book last year called "Journeys of a Lifetime, 500 of the World’s Greatest Trips." The entry called "Thailand Cuisine Tour" was written by yours truly.Cut_watermelonbmp

    Taking a Thai cooking class or going on a culinary tour would be a good way for a solo traveler to go to Thailand alone and feel at ease. You will be cooking side by side with others. Talking, laughing, chopping, cutting, bleeding. It’s downright social!

    Gourmet on Tour offers lodgings and cooking classes in Bangkok, Chang Mai and Phuket. You can find cooking classes on cruises, in rural areas, outdoors and on farms. The Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School opened in 1993, and is run by an international Thai chef. Move over, Rachael Ray, if you’re not whipping up some Pad Thai.

    I have at least two friends who learned the art of mixing rice or noodles with fish sauce, lime, oil, chopped peanuts, cilantro, egg, and more in Thailand. They came home enamored of their Asian culinary skills.

    Thai_village
    Of course, cooking classes are just one of the things that draws visitors to the land of wats and rice fields, mountains and night markets, bamboo huts and a beloved monarchy.

    But for solo travelers, it’s a good entree to it all and a way to socialize and sit down and eat with others for a few days at some point during a vacation to Thailand.

    Photos:

    1. By Goab, a friend who visited a Thai festival in Washington, DC, that included fruit carving.

    2. By Ellen Perlman. A scene from rural Thailand.

  • Kick, throw or spectate. Sports brings solo travelers together with locals

    Sports fan? It’s the perfect entree for a solo traveler. Perhaps you play a sport. Perhaps you’re a big fan of a sport. Either way, it’s something you have in common with a large group of people in other countries.Soccer_on_tvellen_perlman_boldlyg_4

     

    Viewing_soccerellen_perlman_boldlygSports bring travelers and locals together in several ways, according to a post in Vagabondish, a Web travelzine. You can learn about a new sport in a foreign country; you can join locals playing casually; and you can visit during a big sports competition.

    When I was in Spain (see post) last June, I ended up by accident in a small restaurant in Barco de Avila during the final match of the country’s soccer league. It was Real Madrid against…another team. (Maybe you soccer/football fans remember). Well, this place was hopping!

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  • Solo travel for seniors

    The San Jose Mercury News ran a story yesterday on some travel companies that cater to single seniors. If you’re a senior how about it? If you are related to, or friendly with, a senior (is there a better word than that to describe the experienced set?) let them know they can still travel safely, and with company, even if they set out solo.

  • Learning the “sweet Spanish” of Costa Rica in a fairy tale setting

    Costa_ricaby_joiseyshowaa
    You get off a plane in San Jose, Costa Rica, and get picked up by someone who has been expecting your arrival. You are driven to Santa Ana, "the most beautiful little town," and meet the family you’re going to live with.

    The day classes start, you are driven up a mountain to go to the school class. It’s a perfect 70 degrees up there every day. The Spanish you learn is "very sweet." That is, it’s simple to understand and learn.

    This is how my brother, Michael, describes his two-week Spanish immersion program in Costa Rica with Centro Linguistico Conversa. Now I’m thinking of going.

    It surprised me that he chose to do it. Spanish was his worst subject in school. He’s a skilled numbers guy who works in tech and has taken a fair number of accounting classes.

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  • Vacationing solo on a cruise to Greece, Italy and Turkey

    A solo cruise to Greece, Italy and Turkey changed April Lutz for all time.

    Santorini
    It wasn’t the amazing ruins of Ephesus, Turkey, the best preserved classical city of the Eastern Mediterranean. Or the visit to Izmir, Turkey, dating back to 3000 B.C. Or the stop in her favorite place, Santorini, Greece, with its brilliant white houses and blue-domed churches built into a hillside that actually is a volcanic crater.

    No, it was the realization she could strike out on her own. Book a solo trip. Deal with her nerves before going. Get over the fact she didn’t speak the languages of the places she was going. Forget the fact she was supposed to go to Germany with her boyfriend…until they broke up three weeks before that trip.On_camel

    She took what she felt was the easiest route to a solo vacation. She booked a reasonably priced cruise with Costa Cruises. With stops in Rome and Sicily in Italy, Patmos and Mykonos in Greece, and Izmir. After paying her money, she let someone else take over the details.

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  • Traveling couples squabble and squawk. Solo travelers, not so much

    Fodor’s recently offered 10 reasons for traveling solo. Actually…no they didn’t. They listed 10 tips for traveling with your significant other. Which I read as, "Good thing I don’t have to deal with those things right now." Though I have when traveling with significant others. Ellen_at_giants_causeway

    "Bettyk" says she used to stress out because she was in charge of the map while her husband drove. "That caused more squabbles than anything else."

    I, on the other hand, NEVER get mad at myself for giving me the wrong directions. It usually leads to some other adventure. If not, I just deal with it.

    "Nytraveler" finds the best way to "avoid crankiness" is to avoid 24-hour togetherness. Yah, man. I definitely schedule alone time on a regular basis…like the whole glorious trip!!!

    "Melissa5" says she and her significant other "vow to have fun on vacation," discussing at home, in advance of the trip, the things that normally cause fights. Then they work it out ahead of time. Yikes. Sounds rough. Thank goodness, I don’t feel any urge to fight with myself nor work things out with me beforehand.

    You get the drift. Go out and treat yourself to a solo adventure. Go where and when you want to. Just be sure not to annoy yourself…*snicker*…

    Photo: Ellen tilting at the Giant’s Causeway, Northern Island.

  • Aaarrgghhhh. Have you been unable to comment?

    Ticked_off_readerellen_perlman
    <<Unhappy reader

    Readers who have tried to send comments to Boldly Go Solo in the past few weeks have been frustrated by their inability to do so. Sorry about that.

    The problem has been fixed, thanks to a heads up by Ted, a reader who recently commented on the post on single supplements. Thanks, Ted.

    To everyone else…HEY! Start sending those great comments, just like you used to. This time they will post. I hope…

  • Lake Tahoe biking, hiking, skating, kayaking, walking, eating, sleeping. Whew.

    Tahoe_hikingellen_perlman_2
    I’m standing high on a mountain in California on a hot summer day, my hiking boots planted at the top edge of a large patch of snow. One of the last remaining from the winter. I take in the scenery. The snow-kissed Sierra Nevada Mountains. The stoic evergreen trees. A verdant mountain meadow below.

    Then, with an Elvis-like flick of my hips to get going, I let my feet skid. I go slipping ‘n sliding on the ski-season leftovers. My arms swing wildly, helping me keep my balance. But I fear coming to the end of the patch and pitching forward when my feet hit dirt. So I sit down to stop. Elegant!

    What a great trip. A multi-sport tour of Lake Tahoe that included mountain biking, hiking, inline skating and kayaking. I had a wipeout during that trip due to a loose brake on my skate (my fault for not checking and tightening the screws for, oh, about two years). That spectacular fall led to major road rash. About 10 inches of bruise and scrapes on my left thigh.Tahoe_kayakingellen_perlman

    But when you’re with a group, even with people you’ve only known for a few days, people rally around you. One guest, a doctor, taught me how to clean and dress the wound.

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